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peRTnalife* 



The Pending Issaes.- Equal Eights to all Men, 




SPEECH i ^ 



OF Sw " 



SENATOK GIBSON, 



ON THE 



Joint Eesolutions on Fationai Affairs. 



IN SENATE, MARCH 8, 1866. 



Mr. President — The resolntions now under 
discussion call upon us for a deliberate expres- 
sion of the sentiments of this body, touching 
the great principles which have animated our 
exertions for the last five years, and for the 
icainteuance and establishment of which the 
people of this State have poured out their trea- 
sure and their blood without stint and without 
measure. Why, and in what spirit should we 
discuss them, and what necessity exists for their 
present agitation or passage ? And first, let us 
lay aside, for the time, so far as is possible, all 
mere party spirit, and rise to the level of the 
principles to be examined, free alike from the 
bitterness, as well as the strife always arising 
from mere partisan struggles. The contest of 
fire and blood and slaughter through which we 
have but lately passed, was for certain fixed and 
immutable principles, above and beyond names, 
parlies and partisans. 

"When the rebellion broke out with the South- 
em thunder of stolen guns and ammunition 
fired on Fort Sumter, the reverberation awoke 
an answering thunder in the North, that never 
slumbered or slept, till its dreadful peals had 
shattered the Confederacy of Southern traitors 
and their Northern abettors into a thousand 
atoms, and sank them, it was hoped, into an 
ocean so deep, that line and plummet could 
not reach them, nor any political resurrection 
arouse them. 

But he that hop=d or expected that the spirit 
which instigated this rebellion in its origin, and 
actuated it throughout in all its efi'orts, was 
destroyed merely by the defeat of its armies 
and the destruction of its batteries, is entirely 
mistaken. 

It, therefore, becomes necessary to continue 



the contest and more firmly establish and 
cement the principles for and on which it was 
fought. 

Cardinal among these were the questions 
whether the United States was a nation or not ? 
whether it bad existence as a government or 
not? whether it had the powers and rights, the 
privileges and duties of national esistence? 
or whether, on the contrary, it was merely a 
confederacy; connected together only by a rope 
of sand, with a right in any of the States to se- 
cede at will — a mere hulk, drifting on the great 
ocean of nations, crowded with passengers and 
property, sailors and crew, servants and offi- 
cers — but no one having power to control ; the 
right to obedience being dependent on the will 
of the one ordered. Her condition desperate, 
and none protecting — by none protected. 
"Wholly unable to govern herself, of course pow- 
erless to defend the rights of her crew or pas- 
sengers, against the wrongful acts of power and 
force. 

On the contrary, the Unionist claimed that 
these States were a united government, and aa 
such, were capable of self- protection, and en- 
titled, of right, to use all the measures, neces- 
sary or required, to preserve not merely her 
existence, but also the personal and political 
rights of the people composing the nation. 

The Unionist thought our national existence 
and the rights of the people thereby established 
and protected, were worth. ^ghting for — worth 
bleeding for — aye, if necessary, worth dying 
for ; and many, many of them fought, and Wed 
and died in the cause, and their names are^. hal- 
lowed, their graves the Meccas of the patriot, 
where 






"When Spring, with dewy Angers cold, 
Retims to deck their hallowed mould, 
She there shall dre^s a sweeter sod 
Than fancy"* feet have ever trod 
By fairy hand:* their knell is nin^, 
Bv forms \mseen ihur dir;::e i* suu? ; 
There IloDor comes — a pilgrim grey — 
To bless the turf that wraps ihtir clay." 

In tbe gisantic struggle through which the 
Nation has passed, these priuciples have been 
established, and indeed, cemented as it, were 
with the blood and treasure of the Nation. 
Our revolutionary fathers handed down to us, as 
a sacred le2acy, the liberties of this country — 
the Unionists of the last five years, have proved 
themselves no degenerate sons, bat they, in like 
manner, have worked out, through the lire and 
slaughter and persecution of war, and will hand 
down to their sons, the priceless legacy of Na- 
tional existence, and personal and political 
rights preserved and purified — enabling them, 
we trust, in all future time, to enjoy unimpiired, 
the blessings of free institutions. 

But why, say some, continue the fight after 
the enemy has been beaten ? 

This was the chief argument made use of in 
the peaceful contest of ballots and not bullets, 
through which we passed at the election in No- 
vember last. It, was then said, we have fought 
and conquered, let us take these prodigal men 
and women, and killing the fatted calf, set down 
to eat and drink of the flesh pots, and forget in 
onr joyousness at the return of peace, the strug- 
gles and sorrows, the sufferings and cruelties 
we have endured, and let us forgive our " erring 
brethren," who fought and slew us — and we 
are cited to the example and teachings of Him 
who spake as never man spake, that this was 
our duty as men and as Christians. 

The Unionist answered this specious device of 
the enemy by saying : " We will forgive them, 
when they repent of their sins and show works 
meet for repentance." Bot we cannot forgive 
them so long as we see the same spirit stir- 
ring within them, which originated the contest. 
They are only seeking by new courses, or strange 
devices, to accomplish the same wicked end 
which actuated them in their original crime. 

Would it have been good policy, Mr. Presi- 
dent, to have allowed the fruits of lour years of 
war and suffering by us, to have been lost to our 
cause b}' not following up, to their legitimate re- 
Bults, the victories we had obtained ? 

Should wo spend thousands of millions of 
treasure, and lose hundreds of thousands of 
lives, of brothers, and Fons, and fathers, to sus- 
tain our principles, and establish and cement 
them, and having conquered, sit iilly down and 
lav our heads in the lap of this Southf»rn Delilah 
and have our successes, costing so much in 
blood and tre;isure, all frittered away by the 
ciinninif persuasions and soft words of the be- 
trayer ? If we did, we should deserve, after 
being sheared mentally, morally and physically, 
to bo aronsL'd as was iSampson of ohlen time, 
under like circumstances, with the cry of the 
slayer and assaasin, *' The Philistines be upon 
thee !" 

TliTe was, aye there is danger of these results. 
Th^'y who have gone through a great and ex- 
hausting straggle, of whatever kind it may be, 



are necessarily weakened and unnerved in some 
respects, and to them the cry of peace and mag- 
nanimity have always their charms. But the 
Unionists listened not to the voice of the charm- 
er, and from thence, if we will but continue our 
vigilance, we shall yet pluck the diamond of 
safety. 

What was it originated this mighty struggle 
but the lust of power and wealth on the part of 
the South ? And this aggrandizement was to 
be obtained, as is now well known, by and 
throu2h African slavery, unbounded and unre- 
stricted, save only by man's cupidity. This 
could never be obtained while in union with 
the North, and secession became therefore a 
necessity. The conclusion being foregone, it 
was easy to find a cau.se, and the' election of 
Mr. Lincoln was used as the occasion. 

The rebellion broke out, and soon the North 
found that, to restore the Union and conquer a 
peace, required the most superhuman exertions. 
These were all put forth, and well we remember 
how close and doubtful seemed the issue. Then, 
and not till then, did the North appreciate the 
magnitude of the contest, and when this was 
seen we were not long in seizing the remedy — 
the axe was laid at the root of the tree, and cut- 
ting loose from our prejudices, we were blessed 
with light and success. 

The colored race'of the south — the neglected, 
benighted, oppressed African, — " God's image 
disinherited" — was made free — received as a 
soldier in the Union ranks — his services accepted 
anywhere and everywhere and at anything. He 
fought on the field of battle; he watched as a 
scout ; he was used as a spy ; he buried the 
fallen in battle ; carried the wounded from the 
field ; he nur.'^ed the sick in the hospital ; he dug 
the intrencliments and defended them with his 
musket. He advanced with the forlorn hope, 
and laid down his life with the rest. His cou- 
rage, though oft denied, before it was tried, is 
not denied now. His blood was poured out for 
the union cause. He sent into actual service 
over 200,000 soldiers, and his race was nobly 
represented among the slain as well as the 
living, in every battle field, after his ser- 
vices were accepted. But this was only a 
tithe of his good deeds. He relieved our 
wounded and imprisoned soldiers at the South, 
and guided them always in safety to freedom. 
And over and above, and beyond all, he was 
faithful and loyal to the Union. In all the 
South, no matter how dark our cause looked, or 
how black the prospect, the colored man re- 
mained firmly our friend. He was faithful 
among the faithless. And when this was fully 
seen and understood, and the true cause of the 
war known, our statesmen advised and our 
Commander-in-Chief proclaimed his freedom 
and that of his race, giving the faith of the 
nation as his assurance of protection, and with 
that glorious decree there was tak-^n from the 
enemy and added to the Union side in mere 
numbers, and that is' but a small way of estima- 
ting the force of thiii change, over four millions 
of human beings 1 Who shall tell the effect? 

Physically, it was a mighty blow, but morally, 
it was immense. It reached every State and 



every county, every plantatiou and every 
family, at the south. It stood beside every 
table, and by night was about every couch ; and 
though no ghost, but real, actual aud palpable, 
yet it had ghostly power ; and to young and old, 
man and woinau, it carried terror, for they 
could not but think ceaselessly, with all the fears 
of conscious guilt, of how they had abused and 
cruelly treated him, who had thus become, if he 
chose his own avenger. 

This down-trodden race, slaves no louger, be- 
came thus by this great decree, fkeedmen, and 
entitled to protection, not only by the law, as 
being equal to any others before the law, but 
also as having fought for and with us ; for is not 
he who sheds his blood with us, and iu our 
cause, entitled to share with us in the privileges 
se?ured by his courage and faithfulness, as well 
as ours. '• He who sheds his blood with me is 
my brother," and ought to be treated as such. 
Humanity and good policy alike require it, and 
justice demands it. 

Does any one suppose that the conscience of 
the North will be satisfied witli banding our 
colored brother aud friend, bound hand and 
foot, and delivered over to the treatment he is 
certain to receive at the hands of his old master, 
when the cord that binds him is loosened, the 
northern soldier withdrawn, and the Freedman's 
Bureau abandoned ? Will the northern people, 
at the mere signal of the politician, close their 
eyes, and not see, shut their ears, and refuse to 
hear the suiferings and groans that will cer- 
tainly arise from the fierce spirit of the South, 
once let loose from the terror or northern power 
and northern bayonets 1 

Has that fell spirit been quelled 1 Has the 
Ethiopian changed his skin, or the leopard his 
spots 1 Has the South shown the slightest 
sorrow or repentance for its numerous and black- 
hearted sins ? Has it done any work meet for 
repentance 1 Look over the whole calendar of 
what it has done, and point, if you can, to any 
thing in that direction. We have only to look 
at their legislation to show that the virus still 
remains, animating with its deadly spirit the 
law-making power. It is certainly fair to judge 
the South, and their alleged repentance aud 
willingness to accept the result of the war, by 
the public acts of their representatives. The 
people are fairly chargeable with all that is done 
or omitted by those whom they have elected to 
act for them since the war termiuated. And 
how do we find them acting ? Are they 
seeking to effectuate and enforce the prin- 
ciples on which the war terminated, or 



of law accessible to them, and giving them the 
privileges of witnesses and the right of testify- 
ing ? There is nothing of the kind. If given at 
all, iu any one respect, it is so guarded, limited 
and restricted as to be of no substantial 
benefit. It is only necessary to peruse 
the shameful black code of South Carolina, 
or that of Louisiana, worse, if it be possible, 
and that of Alabama, to be painfully alive, to 
how little appreciation the southern people have 
of the right ''to life, liberty and the pursiiit of 
happiness," inherect now in the freedmen, as 
well as the white, and which the latter is bound 
now to respect. 

" Colored children between the ages mention- 
ed [eighteen and twenty-one] who have neither 
father nor mother living in the district in which 
they ore found, or whose ])arents are paupers, or 
anable to afibrd them a comfortable mainten- 
ance, or whose parents are not teaching them habits 
of industry and honesty, or are persons of noto- 
riously bad character, or are vagrants, or have 
been convicted of infamous offenses, and colored 
children, in all cases where they are in danger of 
moral contamination, may be bound as appren- 
tices by the district judge or one of the magis- 
trates for the aforesaid term." 

The case of Mississippi is much worse, as the 
following evidence very clearly shows : 

1. The Legislature rejected, almost unani- 
mously, the Constitutional amendment abolish- 
ing slavery. 

2. The same body established a state militia 
system, and ordered that its troops should wear 
the old confederate gray as their uniform. 

3. It changed the name of a county to Davis. 

4. It levies taxes upon almost everybody and 
everything, but exempts blind and disabled 
confederate soldiers, aud provision is also made 
for supplying maimed soldiers with artificial 
limbs, at the public cost. 

5. Resolutions were adopted for erecting a 
grand national monument to the gallant dead 
of the stfite who fell in the late memorable 
struggle. 

6. Three commissioners were appointed to 
proceed to Washington to obtain the removal of 
the federal colored troops from the state. 

7. The governor of the state has issued an 
order to disarm the negroes. 

8. A bill was passed, ostensibly to confer 
civil rights upon the freedmen, but its details 

re such that the fewer the rights which the ne- 
gro realizes under it, the better be will be off. 

It would seem from the vayiety of their de- 
vices, as though their whole thoughts had beeu 



those to which they have held all through the addressed to the question of how they could 



struggle, yielding only to superior power and 
force, and yielding no more than they could 
help 1 What do we find them enacting ? Laws 
for the preservation of the lives, liberty and 
property of the freedmen ? Laws enabling then: 
to purchase, hold and take real and personal es- 
tate, and to sell and convey the same at pleasure 1 
Laws to furnish them with the means of educa- 
tion — to enable them to go from place to place — 
to work for whom and at such wages as they 
choose — and lastly, and what is of vital im- 
portance to them, enactments making the courts 



most firmly and efl'ectually retain and control 
the work and labor of the freedmen, and yet, 
not subject themselves to the authority of the 
United States, under the amendment of the Con- 
stitution abolishing slavery, and authorizing the 
legislation necessary to enforce the provision. 
No one can have failed to notice that some of the 
rebel states, while ratifying that amendment, 
accompanied it with a deliberate reservation, that 
nothing therein should be deemed as granting 
power to Congress over the freedmen subse- 
quently. And in some of these states, we find 



euactments forbidding Ihe freedman from own- 
ing any land ; requiring him to always live in 
one parish, never to leave the employment of 
one till he has hired out to another ; and not to 
leave an employer at all without his consent, or 
without leave from some other white man, in 
the same town and holdirg an office; declaring 
him a disorderly person if he violates any of 
these btatutes, or refuses or neglects to work, or 
disobeys the orders of his master, and punishes 
him with imprisonment and stripes. In case of 
his being found guilty or disorderly, or violating 
these black laws, he can be bound out (o service 
for years. The system of slavery is thus suli- 
stantially restored, and the constitutional en- 
actment easily avoided by finding or declaring 
the freedman guilty of iome crime, or something 
that is called a crime. It is also evaded b} 
binding out to service all children till they 
reach a certain age, and also any person who 
does not work or refuses to work, or is found 
traveling without a pass, wliich he can only 
ob'ain from his employer. 

If the freedman is abused or insulted, or de- 
prived of his rights or bis property, or his wife 
or children taken from him, he has now the 
freedmaii's court or bureau to resort to for redress, 
and there his evidence and that of his wife and 
children and others of his race is received, and 
if, on examination, his case is one proper for 
relief, his wrongs are redressed. The act estab- 
lishing that tribunal is, however, temporary in its 
character, ard expires by its own limitaiion in 
one year after the war ceased. The congress 
foresaw, that if this law was allowed to expire, 
and no substitute enacted, the freedmen would 
be left naked in the hands of their enemies, and 
therefore enacted the act, which has lately been 
vetoed by the president. 

If the freedmen's bureau shall expire, and no 
new law be in the meantime enacted, and the 
freedmen thus left without protection from the 
merciless hands of their late masters, it will be 
the most ungrateful and unmerciful act, that 
was ever perpetrated since the world began. 
Shall we- of the North, the people of the State 
of New York, or we, their representatives, be 
guilty of such a gross and shameful breach of 
laith and conQdence? If so, let us take from 
the summit of this capitol the statu'j of Justice, 
that principle whose seat is in the bosom of 
God, and which the artist symbolized so well in 
the representation surmounting the dome above 
this chamber — " the blinded brow, to show the 
stern siLgleness of heart; the scales, to weigh 
the merits of the case ; and the keen sword, the 
agent of a Budden and complete retribution." 
Let us, at leatt. if we do not take down the 
statue, remove the scales and sword, for neither 
are longer needi-d, when we are so regardless of 
our plighted faith to protect those freed men in 
the full enjoyment of their rights. 

If we aru consenting to this crime, or having 
part or lot in it. we may bo assured our conni- 
vance will bring on again, and that full »oon, 
this desperate battle to light over again; and it 
HO, we may well fear, that aftersuch wicked dis- 
regard and unfaithfulness to those of our race 
who helped us before, the God of battles, the 



God of justice, w^ho fought with us then — our 
pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night — will 
be in that coming contest, a Nemesis avenging, 
and if He do not destroy, will suffer us to fight 
alone ; and we shall not have, or deserve, the 
aid of the freedman, as ho will not fail to re- 
member our shameful disregard of his former 
faithfulness in our cause. 

The means for protecting the life of this nation 
and the rights of the freedmen from the dis- 
armed rebel of tlie South, are in our own hands 
and power. We can use them if we will, and 
mark. Sir, I would not counsel the abuse of those 
means. Those means lie in the conditions we 
may reasonably and properly impose on the 
lately armed and rebellious States, before we 
shnli receive them or their representatives into 
full national relations ; and in the enacting of 
suitable legislation for the establishment and 
permanent protection of the rights guaranteed 
to the freedmen. 

First, Is such legislation, and the imposition 
of such conditions, necessary and expedient "? 

Passing for the present the necessity of legis- 
lation, let us look at the conditions necessary to 
be imposed, and the right to impose them. 

lii dealing with this question let us look at it 
practically and in the light of facts, and not be 
carried away by paere theories and abstractions. 

The southern states seceded from the Union, 
in fact. They passed ordinances of secession, 
and organized a rebellion against the govern- 
ment, and maintained by civil war, a separate 
existence for over four years. During all this 
time, they were actually, as much out of the 
Union, as if never members of it. They made 
their own laws, and enforced them. Disregard- 
ed all laws made by the Union, and we could 
not, and did not, for four years compel obedi • 
ence to them. 

Now, 1 presume, it will not be denied by any 
one. that had a rebel appeared at Washington 
during the rebellion, and claimed a seat in the 
Senate, or in the House, as a representative from 
a constituency, at the time in arms, attempting 
to destroy the nation, the Senate or House in 
which his application was made, would have had 
a clear right to reject the claim. Wherefore, on 
what ground could they have so determined ? 
Simply, for the reason that he was a rebel, and 
his constituency in like condition with himself. 
What is the difference between then and now ? 
They are still in the same position as then, only 
that they are not in arms. The rebellion is only 
conquered so far as to disarm the soldiers and 
officers. 

Hear what General Thomas says as to the con- 
dition of these States, in his evidence lately 
siven before the Pve-construction Committee at 
Wa-hingt()U : 

" I do nut think it would be expedient to re- 
move the troops until people show that they are 
themselves willing and determined to execute 
civil law with im])arlial justice to all parties. I 
think public sentiment is divided on the subject 
of allowing freedmen to become freeholders. I 
have Jieard of no legislation on that subject, 
either to empower them to become freeholders, 
or to prohibit them from becoming such. If 



national troops and the Freedmen's Bureau were 
to be withdrawn from the State at this time, I 
do not believe that the Union men or the freed- 
men could have justice done them. Injustice 
toward them would commeDce in suits in courts 
for petty offenses and neighborhood combina- 
tions to annoy them so much that they could 
not reside there. I am satis 6ed that until a 
better state of feeling shall arise there, if all 
restraint should be removed, the freedmen 
would be thrown back into a condition of .vir 
tual slavery — that is, they would be compelled 
by legislative enactments to labor for little or no 
wages, and legislation would assume such a form 
that they would not dare leave their employers 
for fear of punishment ; and unless white men 
who had led Union men through the war had 
very strong personal friends, tbey could not live 
in the State. They would be annoyed so much 
in various ways that they could not live 
there in any peace or comfort." 

Listen to the evidence of General Saxton, as 
to the condition of affairs iu the States of Geor- 
gia, South Carolina and Florida. He says : 

" Among the great majority of the white pop- 
ulation, hatred to Yankees is thorough and in- 
tense. If the United States military forces were 
to be withdrawn, it would be hardly possible 
for Northern men and Union men to remain 
there, particularly those who had taken any 
prominent part on the side of the Government. 
The object which the freedmen has most at heart 
is the purchase of land. They all desire to get 
small homesteads, and to locate themselves up- 
on them, and there is scarcely any sacrifice too 
great for them to make to accomplish this ob- 
ject. I believe it is the policy of the majority 
of their former owners to prevent negroes from 
becoming landholders. They desire to keep ne- 
groes landless and as nearly in a condition of 
slavery as-possible." 

Hear what General Grierson says, as to the 
causes of this, and the effects of misjudged len- 
ity on them : 

" Q. To what do you attribute the change of 
sentiment between the time of Lee's surrender 
and later on ? A. That would only be a matter 
of opinion. I think if the disloyal had been 
dealt with more severely there would have been 
less dissatisfaction and more loyalty in the South 
to-day ; their demands have steadily increased ; 
at the time I left they complained that their 
Congressmen were not admitted, and they seem- 
ed to think that on that account they were an 
injured people. I think that every Congress- 
man elected in the State of Alabama was elected 
by reason of his devotion to the cause of the 
Rebellion. Some of them served at Richmond 
as Congressmen, and others as officers in the 
Rebel army, but in no case that I know of was 
a loyal man elected. The truly loyal people of 
Alabama do not wish the present elected Con- 
gressmen and Senators from that State admitted 
into Congress," 

The evidence is abundant and conclusive to 
this point. 

Our right to reject the rebels during the war, 
will stand on the ground of the right of self- 
preservation. Had we allowed them to come 



into the two Houses of Congress with sword and 
bayonet and revolver, how long could our na- 
tional existence have been maintained 1 Not an 
hour. And it seems to me no one can deny the 
right to exclude these States during their armed 
rebellion. 

But it is said they are States ; and with all the 
rights of a State, they could not legally secede, 
and their act of secession was a mere nullity ; 
and the moment they were conquered, their 
rights revived in full force. Certainly, a most re- 
markable corollary, and from singular premises. 

The only diflerence then, between the peo- 
ple of the South during the rebellion, and their 
representatives who are now asking admission 
into Congress, is, that the one fought with 
the bayonet to carry out his disunion 
principles and the other seeks an en- 
trance into Congress to carry them into effect 
with the ballot. We have fought and conquered 
them with the bullet, and I trust in a kind 
Providence, if we are only true and faithful 
to the great principles which have actuated us 
in the past, we may yet fight and conquer them 
with ballots. 

But let us not, while trusting Providence, for- 
get that we are expected to " watch as well as 
pray," and above all that we should not fail to 
use the worldly weapons the law has furnished 
to our hands, in order to defeat the machinations 
of our enemies, and let us impose such con- 
ditions, as will in all future time relieve us from 
this overshadowing danger. 

The first resolution before us to my mind 
clearly enunciates this right. 

It declares that such State must, in order to 
entitle it to representation, " present itself, not 
only in an attitude of actual loyalty and harmo- 
ny, but in the persons of representatives whose 
loyalty cannot be questioned," and that each 
House of Congress " has full power to determine 
for itself, when the constituency or the repre- 
sentative meets the conditions above set forth." 

To my mind, this resolution in plain and 
vigorous language declares that in the two 
houses is vested the exclusive control of this 
whole subject, and with the express power to 
impose such conditions as they may deem es- 
sential to satisfy them that the constituencies 
claiming to be represented occupy " an attitude 
of actual loyalty and harmony," and that the 
representative is himself loyal. These States are 
thus to be exckided, till they are loyal and har- 
monious to the government, and the two Houses 
are to determine whc7i such states occupy this 
position. 

The two Houses may undoubtedly prescribe 
their own rules, and the evidence of com- 
pliance. The resolution in substance so states, 
and properly to. 

Would not the two Houses have power to 
say that a State, which, at the same session it 
appointed a representative to the Senate of the 
United States, had enacted a law to raise and 
maintain an armed force, or to send an embassj 
to England, was not in a state of loyalty and 
harmony to the government ? Certainly it 
would, and why, because these acts would 
show the existence of a hostile feeling on 



the part of the State sufficient to amply] 
justify the rejection of their claim to represen- , 
tatioD. I 

So also, if any of these states refused or ne- ; 
glected to pass the laws which in the judament 
of the two Houses, were requisite to show that 
the states were loyal and harmonious to the ^ 
Government, such for instance as a disavowal of i 
the claim for compensation for slaves emanci- j 
pated during the war, or that of taxation for the , 
purpose of paying the rebel w.ir debt, such re- ; 
fusal or omission would, the two Houses being i 
the exclusive judga, entitle them to reject the 
claim to representation. [ 

Then as to whether lef^islation is necessary in \ 
order to protect the loyal people of the South ? j 
The two houses of congress in order to re- 1 
lieve and protect the freedmen, lately passed 
what is called the Freedmen's Bureau bill, by 
which he is placed under the shield of the gov- ■ 
ernment. 

This act, so necessary, as we have seen, has | 
just been vt-toed by the president. He makes I 
some objections to the details of the act — but 
no one can read his message and fail to see that ] 
it is the measure and not the details, that meet I 
his disapproval, 

He objects to it as unnecessary and inexpedi- 
ent, omitting however, to meet one other great j 
reason for its necessity, that it was passed 
since the congress by the amendment to the 
constitution, obtained the power, to pass it as a 
permanent act. 

The President objects also to the bill, that 
it is unconstitutional. He forgets or ignores 
the great amendment to the Constitution, 
by which slavery was abclished and the Con- 
gress was authorized to pass laws necessary 
to enforce the amendment. This very Freed- 
men's bill is one of the laws deemed necessary 
by Congress to effectuate the provision. The 
necessity for it arose from the amendment being 
ordained as part of the fundamental law. With- 
out these and similar provisions protecting the 
freedmen, his enfranchisement is merely nomi- 
nal, as has been already shown. The President 
further objects, that there is an existing Freed- 
man's Bill, which does not expire until one year 
after the closing of the war, and that there is 
time abundant yet to pasi a law if necessary. 
He forgets that there will be thousands at the 
Sooth to claim, and State courts ready to decide, 
as soon as Congress adjourns, that the war 
closed in May last. Why leave any doubt on 
the subject ? 

As to this objection of unconstitutionality to 
the Freedmen's Bureau act, if there was any 
foundation for it, why was it never made to the 
Indian Bureau act? It is well known that the 
government from an early period was compelled 
to take the Indian rate under its care as its 
wards. The reasons for this were in many 
respects the same as thosu which now compel 
the founding; of the Freedmen's Bureau. The 
Indian was of separate race, the white man was 
steadily depriving him of his property and his 
rights, and it was seen that unless tlie govern- 
ment interfered the Indian race would be des- 
troyed to t!ie eternal disgrace and infamy of 



the dominant race. By this act the Indian is 
placed under the protection of the government. 
Agents are appointed and justice is adminis- 
tered among them, and above all, any white 
man who deals unjustly by them is punished 
according to his deserts. In distress or 
in famine, the Indian is fed by the govern- 
ment, and in sickness he has medicine and 
medical attendance at the expecse of the Gov- 
ernment. 

No one ever heard the objection that these 
proceedings were unlawful, or this act uncon- 
stitutional. 

It may be claimed that this is all founded on 
treaties with the Indians, aud duties arising 
therefrom. The payments made no doubt often 
have been, but the duty is higher than any mere 
treaty right; it arises from the sacred right 
which every person, born on the soil of a 
nation, has to its protection — to full security 
for his person and property. 

The African race, like that of the Indian, has 
peculiar claims to these rights — claims on our 
justice, if not on our humanity, and we cannot 
disregard them without national > ishonor. 

But the veto message further says, "That 
he," the freedrnan, "possesses a perfect right to 
change his place of abode, and if, tlierefore, he 
does not find in one community or State a mode 
of life suitable to his desires, or proper remu- 
neration for his labors, he can move to another, 
where labor is more esteemed and better re- 
garded." 

The president forgets that it is the freedman's 
bureau that enables him to " change his place 
of abode ;" and thatif he had not that protection 
and made an effort to go in search of labor, 
leaving a master who misused or did not pay 
him, seeking that place " where labor was more 
esteemed and better regarded," he would be ar- 
rested as a " disorderly person," would be con- 
victed of this crime before his master's court, 
and would be bound in the fetters of slavery 
again as firmly as ever. 

It is from the dreadful effects of this judicial 
blindness of the South that the act, vetoed by 
the president, sought to guard the freedrnan ; 
and it is this veto which leaves them unprotect- 
ed to the passions of the secesh and rebel of 
the South. 

The President in his annual message, only in 
December last, says that: "Good faith requires 
the security of the freedmen in their liberties 
and their property, their right to labor and 
their right to claim the just return of their la- 
bor." And how shall this right be enforced, ia 
the first question that arises ; because it cannot 
be that the President intended by this language 
to state an aphorism, or merely declare an ab- 
stract proposition. He no doubt int<^nded to 
use the language as a part of his constitutional 
dutj', in lecommcnding such measures of legis- 
lation to Congress, as he deemed expedient. He 
therefore substantially recommended to Con- 
gress to provide for the security of the freed- 
men, in his liberty and property, and his right 
to labor and to receive a just compensation 
therefor. The President had thus performed 
his duty, and was Congress negligent or inat- 



7. 



tentive to theirs 1 Not at all. On the contrarj^ I mighty things in Egypt, when he led out the 



children of Israel from their bondage, but he did 
nothiug equal to this ; and t/ien, he was forty 
years in the work, but this was done, as it were, 
with a word. 

In the mighty problems of God's providence, 
was ever anything like thisi 

Before the rebellion tlie institution of slavery 
was as safe as anything created by man could be 
— it was the corner stone of the South, and of 
the two great parties of the North, it was diffi- 
cult to prove which had said the most, or done 
the most to secure its perpetuity — though the 
South unhesitatingly gave the palm to the De- 
mocracy, for they had never hesitated while the 
Whig party h,ad made moral reservations or ex- 
pressed qualms of conscience on the subject. 
But still both had resolved that it could not be 
meddled with in the States. 

But the rebellion broke out, and with it war, 
and with war came all its consequences. 
v; War, not being created or arising out of law, 
is not the creature of law, nor does it know or 
acknowledge obedience to law, and thus the in- 
stitution of slavery, which absolute law only can 
create or maintain, had only brute force to sus- 
tain it, and fell to pieces because the force that 
kept it up was not equal to the emergency. 

The South then found how true it was "that 
they who take the sword shall perish by the 
swo'rd." Most righteous retribution The very 
institution which the war was started to save, by 
the war was destroyed. War alone could have 
effectuated this result, and that war must be 
one originated by the South, as the North would 
never have inaugurated it for that purpose. No 
civil strife, no exercise of national authority 
could have accomplished it, and yet it was done. 
The judicial blindness of the slaveholders near- 
ly three thousand years since described in pro- 
phetic anticipation, as: 

" That mad, furious power, 
Whose unrelenting mind 
No God can govern, and no justice bind, 

was the sole producing cause of this result. 

Is this blindness of our southern brethren^ to 
continue? or will they accept the result, whicb 
the God of battles and of infinite justice has 
brought upon them for their wickedness and 
oppression ? 

Recent events seem to show that their eyes are 
not yet fully opened, or that they have not yet 
exhausted ihe vials of His wrath. That, tak- 
ing encouragement from the Executive veto of 
a great measure for the permanent protectionof 
the frt'edmen, and seeing the doughface politic- 
ians of the North emerging from the retirement 



we find that the subject of the freedman, his 

condition, and right to protection, received 

proper attention in both Houses. The result 

was the "Freedmen's bill," so called, and 

which, as we have seen, has been vetoed. 

It is said by some that there is no need of any 

act on the subject, and that the amendment of 

the constitution will be executed by the courts 

of the United States. Those who argue thus 

can have no adequate conception of the feeling 

at the South, and th^ result certain to flow from 

treating the Southern rebels with what I may 

call the sugar and molasses treatment, instead 

of the stern and strict rule which should 

always follow great crimes committed by large 

communities. 

They now nourish the most bitter hatred to 

this nation, and only desire two things at our 

hands — to discharge the Freedmen's Bureau, 

and withdraw the Union soldiers from their 

borders ; these done, and the questions of 

freedmen's rights, whether j)ersonal or political, 

would soon be determined in a manner that 

would horrify the conscience of the North, but 

too late for successful intervention. 

It is under these circumstances, Mr. President, 

that vv^re in session and have these resolutisns 

under discussion, and I cannot refrain from sol- 
emnly urging that this hour has its teachings. 

"He who will not profit by the lessons of the 

past," says an old proverb, " has lived his life 

in vain." Shall we be thus chargeable 1 Shall 

we, having done these mighty works, now take 

our rest and " eat, drink and be merry," taking 

no thought of the past, and no care for the future. 

If we do, we have indeed " lived in vain," and in 

the hereafter in this life, there will be no though 

more harrowing than that, which, at work or at 

leisure, will surely ever be with us, that we suf- 
fered our children and brothers to die for a cause 

they could not save, and which we miserably 

lost, through our bickerings, our listlessness, 
our follies or our crimes. 

Mr. President, we are living in a time of great 
events, we do not realize the fact, but it is so, 
and when the history of the past five years is 
written, there will not in the history of the 
world, have been so many mighty things 
crowded into the same short space of time as 
has occurred during that period, to this nation. 
The simple truth is stranger than any fiction, 
and romance is turned into reality. 

In the beginning, nearly half of this nation, 
for the purpose of extending and perpetuating 
the institution of slavery, were organizing a re- 
bellion against the Union. Armies were raised ^ ^ 

to defeat the rebels ; but the forces on each side, I into which the M'ar had consigned them, and 
for a considerable time, made no great head gathering courage from the aid thus furnished, 
against the other ; then larger armies were raised and from the black-hearted spirit still unscotched 
and mighty battlts fought, but still no positive ' within them, they are preparing new schemes 
and finishing stroke; then Antietam, with its I to enable them to repossess their lost power over 
dreadful slaughter and its nearly balanced termi- 1 the freedmen, and that the villainous heresy 
nation ; and then came the decree of Emakcipa- j and snake of secession is only " scotched and 
TiON, and the shackles fell from the arms of the \ not killed, while -.ve remain in danger of his 
southern slaves, and with a single stroke, four 
millions were added to the Union side, and taken 
from the rebels ; not mere animals, but human- 
ity, with souls, as well as bodies, Moses did 



former tooth." If so, then let us not forget that 

'Freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding fire to BOn, 
Though baffled oft, is ever won." 



8 



But, Mr. President, it is urged that we must 
conciliate the south— that no enduring peace 
can be obtained without showins; them that we 
have confidence in them, and that true states- 
manship requires that we should bury our dif- 
ferences iu the grave of oblivion, and seek by 
kindness and confidence to win the love of the 
south, and draw them over to onr principles. 

We tried the virtue of conciliation before this 
struggle begun — the north besought the south 
almost to its own abasement, to avoid this con- 
test — but she would have it, and must take the 
consequences of her own violation of all laws, 
both human and divine. If we do not enforce no iv 
security for the future, w-e shall be unfaithful to 
our duty — regardless of the promises we have 
made, and of the faith we owe to the freedmen, 
and careless of the rights and interests of our 
posterity. 

Shall we be thus guilty in the sight of God 
and man ? We ask the people of the North, if 
with all the light of the past and all the hope of 
the future, they are willing to bury their hopes 
and the hopes of four millions of enfranchised 
human beings in that sepulchre? If so, let a 
tomb stone be erected over the grave of the 
great Union party, and let it bear the inscription 
that was written in the olden time of one who 
was treacherously slain at the hands of a pro- 
fessed friend: 

"Died Abner as a fool dieth ? 
Thy hands were not bound, 
Nor ihy feci nut into fetters ; 
As a man falleth bef re wicked men, 
Sofeliest thou." 

Go ask yon father who sent his son to the 
war for the Union he loved so well ; yon 
mother, who parted from f^im, with sorrow, oh 
such sorrow, as only a mother can feel, and yon 
sister, who in parting from him for the last time, 
threw her arms around him and tearfully bid 
him God speed. Go ask them if they are pre- 
pared to say that their great loss was all in vain. 



And you, ye sainted, patriotic dead, whose 
bodies now lie mouldering in southern soil, the 
victims of starvation or cruelty in southern 
prisons, or of rebel bullets in the field, will 
your friends, your townsmen, mayhap your kith 
and kin, will they say that all this was withont 
fruits, and that your great sacrifice was useless? 
Why, Sir, death from this war has been all 
around us. 

" There is no flock howe'er watched or tended 
But one deud lamb Is ttiere; 
There is no fireside howao'er defended 
But has its vacant chair. 

The air is f u 1 of farewells to the djing, 

And.mournings for the dead; 
The heart of Rachel for her children crying 

Will not be comforted." 

And is this the answer you will give to the 
mother in our Israel, who demands an account 
of you for the blood of her son, shed on the 
battlefield of freedom and the Union, that he 
died for a cause he could not save 7 

Never I never, let that be the answer to her 
agonizing cry, but rather that the people shall 
never stay their hands, never stop their efforts, 
till the principles for which he fought and died 
have become the head of the corner i^our po- 
litical system. 

Let us preserve these principles, and protect, 
and, if necessary, extend them. For these pur- 
poses let us sustain and support these resolu- 
tions — let us hold up the hands and strengthen 
the arms of those unfaltering and unswerving 
representatives iu Contiress assembled, who 
have so gloriously battled and are still battling 
for the right, and let us unshrinkingly .«taud by 
the fieedman and for his right-i, and we shall 
illustrate iu our lives the heroic principles of 
our fathers, and hand down to our posterity 
this glorious Union without one star dissevered 
from its national banner — without one shackled 
slave within our n.itional borders. 



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